1997 European Championship

From BR Bullpen

The 1997 European Championship was held from August 30 through September 7 in Paris, France. It was the second European Championship held in France. It was the first European Championship with more than 10 entries, as 12 nations participated. It was the last Euros to feature aluminum bats instead of wooden ones. All statistics are only through the round-robin phase.

Belgium went 4-4, good for sixth place. Tonny Verhaert (9 RBI) led the Euros in both average (.765) and slugging (1.294) while Gert Rosiers hit .500 with 8 runs and 8 RBI. Michael Leys (2-0) led the event with 11 2/3 shutout innings.

Sweden finished 8th at 2-6, going 2-3 in the first round but 0-3 in the 1-8 pool. Magnus Pilegård finished among the leaders in RBI (7) and average (.455). Tomas Eriksson tossed 7 1/3 innings without allowing an earned run.

United Kingdom was 9th with a 2-5 record, 0-5 in the round-robin but 2-0 in the 9-12 pool. Alan Bloomfield (.500) was 6th in the tourney with a .786 slugging percentage.

Germany finished 10th at 3-4; their 2-3 record was the best of the teams entering the 9-12 pool but they were upset by Great Britain in the 9th-10th place game. Marc Marsch led the Championship with 7 steals (in 9 tries).